Meeting Roles

For a Toastmasters' meetings to run smoothly its various participants need to carry out their roles to the best of their ability and follow the club's established guidelines.

You have probably seen many functions performed at Northrise meetings that seemed to go well at the time. But now, looking back, you have no really clear recollection of exactly how each role was carried out. This wouldn't normally matter perhaps, but now maybe you just seen from the Roster that you've been asked to perform a role yourself. Anguish! How did that role go again?

No need to sweat the petty things.(or pet the sweaty things), just use the menu above to select a role and read up on the finer points. After all, isn't forewarned forearmed?

You may have wondered how you got so lucky as to score that particular assignment. The roster system is designed to progressively intoduce members to meeting roles as part of the Toastmaster ongoing education system. Each meeting role is described in this web site in pages which can be accessed from the menu above. These pages are intended to assist newer members (or rusty members) prepare for a role when they are rostered to carry it out.

There are some jobs that you won't be likely to be asked to carry out until you've got a few meeting miles on the clock. Speech Evaluation is one such assignment and Toastmaster and Chairman are others. The General Evaluator role is normally allotted only to senior members.

If you have any queries concerning any role, ask your Club Vice President of Education whose prime responsibility is the educational achievements of individual members, including rostering, or ask a senior member of the Club.

Be sure that you check with this web site if you are using an old version of this Guide as updates are issued periodically.

General Advice

1. If you are unable to carry out your rostered assignment on any particular meeting date, notify the meeting Chairman (or if you are a speaker or evaluator, The Toastmaster). It is not your responsibility to find your replacement. But it is your responsibility to notify your pending absence as early as possible to create the least disruption. Chairmen and Toastmasters should note that all changes to the roster should be advised to the VP Education who will advise who should be substituted into a vacancy.

2. Prepare your assignment thoroughly, well in advance of the meeting - Our Vice President Education tries to give you at least four weeks notice of an upcoming assignment, so PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE !

3. Forms of Address. At the commencement of your assignment, address the person who is in control of the meeting at that particular time-- e.g. "Madam Chair/Mr. Chairman, then address the rest of the meeting "Toastmasters and Guests." or "fellow Toastmasters and guests".

CORRECT FORMS OF ADDRESS

THE CHAIR : Mr Chairman, or Madam Chairman, Chairman John, or Chairman Janet.

TABLE TOPICS MASTER : Mr Table Topics Master, or Madam Table Topics Master, or Table Topics Master John or Table Topics Master Janet.

TOASTMASTER : Mr Toastmaster, or Madam Toastmaster, or Toastmaster John or Toastmaster Janet.

4. At the completion of your assignment, and you wish to hand the control back to the person previously in charge, signify as follows:-
"Madam/ Mr. Chairman, that completes my assignment." For the truly traditional or formal approach, you can add "….and I hand the control of the meeting back to you" but this formality has fallen into disuse in recent times.

5. Throughout the notes on this site there is reference to roles in the male gender. This is intended to neither offend nor inspire a debate on gender deference or PC terminology. It is simply a convenient convention.

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